How to Improve Coding Style (In Python)

I'm finally cracking open the Python Style Guide. I've been programming python for years now so I thought I'd join the club.


In addition to all of the nifty tools available to speed up and optimize python code, there are a few utilities out there to help with coding style. PyLint is a program which analyzes source code and reports lines which do not follow the PEP 8 coding convention. There is another program called CloneDigger which looks through source code and points out duplicate code.


Summary of Guidelines to Improve Python Coding Style:

• Variables
• Global variables should be ALL_CAPS_WITH_UNDERSCORES
• Non-public variables within classes should be prefixed with an underscore and lowercase (_private_list = [])
• Public variables should be lowercase
• Boolean variables should be have "is" or "has" (is_full = True)
• Avoid generic names
• Classes
• Should be named using the CamelCase convention
• If a class will be a base class, prefix the classname with "Base"
• Functions
• Names of functions and methods should be lowercase and underscore separated (do_something_with_this)
• Watch out for custom functions which share names with built-in functions
• If this does happen and one can't find a better name, then add a trailing underscore to the custom function
• Arguments names and contents should be decided through an iterative design process
• Also, do not use spaces around the "=" sign used to assign the default parameter for keyword arguments
• Be careful with *args and **kw. These can cause problems if abused.
• Don't implement "type" checking using the assert command
• Conditionals
• When check to see if an object is true, use "if object:" rather than "if object == True" or "if object is True"
• When checking to see if an object is of a certain "type" (integer, string, etc), do not use "if type(obj) == type(int):", use "if isinstance(obj, int):"
• What's "False" in Python?:
• None
• False
• Zero (of any numeric type)
• Any empty sequence or mapping ({},'', [], ())
• instances of user-defined classes, if the class defines a __nonzero__() or __len__() method, when that method returns the integer zero or bool value False
• Modules and Packages
• Usually has a lib suffix (mathlib)
• Be careful to ensure that any process requiring the use of several functions strung together are consolidated into an independent "pipeline" function
• General Coding
• Clarity over cleverness
• Try to keep code as short as possible--short enough to fit on the screen without having to scroll rampantly
• When a class start to have about 10 or more methods, it is time to re-evaluate the contents of the class and possibly split that larger class into a number of smaller classes
• Use lambda functions for functions that will only be run once or twice. Otherwise, create a defined function
• Use spaces around arithmetic operators
• Import statements should always be on separate lines
• Avoid extraneous whitespace immediately inside parentheses, brackets, or braces. Also before colons